Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1887-01-28
DESTRUCTION OF THE TONQUIN
A Historical Reminiscence.

New York for the Columbia River
She had been chartered by the Amer
lean Fur Company, organized and
controlled by the famous John Jacob
Astor and carried the expedition
which founded the company's trading
post, Astoria.
The experience of this ill-fated
vessel, is described in Hubert Howe
Bancroft's History of the North
West Coast" as follows After an in
teresting voyage, enlivened by con-
slant chickering's between the captain
and the passengers, the vessel arrived
on the Columbia River. The goods
destined for the fort were discharged
and the captain set sail again, this
time for the north where he was to ex-
change the remainder of his cargo for
furs in personal trade with the Indians.
An Indian interpreter of the Chehalis
tribe was secured and progress was
made to Vancouver Island, where the
TonQuin came to anchor before large
Indian village ON Nootka Sound.
The captain was better sailor than
trader and totally misconceived the
character of the Indians. These,
from frequent intercourse with trading
vessels, had learned to know the value
of their furs and could drive as sharp
bargain rs any Yankee skipper
Annoyed at finding the natives, who
had come aboard, disinclined to part
with their stock for a trihe, he ordered
them to quit the ship and accelerated
the obedience of a particularly obnox-
ious chief by pushing him towards
the ladder and giving him parting
blow in the face with roll of furs.
Not native was to be seen during
the rest of the day, but the next morn
ing about twenty of them appeared
again in large pirogue signifying
their desire to trade by each holding
Il roll of furs over his head. The de-
lighted captain admitted them at once,
! congratulating himself upon the sue
cess of his policy to overawe the In
dians, which had made them tractable
and willing to accept the prices Of
fered. More Indians arrived with
more furs, trade progressed favorably
and the captains good humor in
creased. Meanwhile the interpreter
and the sailors on watch had discov-
cred, that while the natives were max
ing fine display of their best furs,
they would keep back some rolls, de-
manding exorbitant prices for them.
Furthermore, all the women kept to
the boats, not one of them having
boarded the ship. Their suspicious
were communicated to the captain
who could not help believing them
we'll founded, as in looking about he
saw that all the natives quietly, as if
by accident, ranged themselves we'll
around the ship, while the late happy
expression on their faces had changed
to one of somber determinatio II.
Neither captain nor crew were armed.
Deciding quickly on escape, the cap
tain ordered five sailors aloft TO unfurl
the sails while the rest were weighing
anchor. The Indians looked on listless-
ly until ordered to their boats, when
each of them took up his roll of furs
and suddenly, at a pre- concerted sig
nal, thrust his hand into it and out
came a knife. With a terrible yell
they threw themselves upon the cap
tain and crew and cut them to pieces,
except four of the sailors aloft who
had slipped through the rigging and
dropping through the steerage hatch
way, secured themselves below. From
here they broke through to the cabin,
armed themselves and suddenly firing
volley into the midst of the savages,
drove them down into the boats and
to the shore. The Indian interpreter
had dropped at the commencement of
the attack down from the vessel into
one of the Indian canoes and surren-
dered himself to the women as slave.
He was an intelligent man and from
him as the only surviving witness the
particulars of the unhappy fate of the
Tonquin and crew were afterwards OBJ
tanned.
During the ensuing night the In
dams let the ship alone, but watched
it from the shore. Next morning they
saw the four men lower a boat and
make for the sea. Instantly the In
dians gave chase, "but," says the in
terpreter, whether these men were
overtaken and murdered, or gained
the open sea and perished there, do
not know" What became of them
has never been learned.
The Indians boarded the ship again,
to the number of five hundred, men
and women. Suddenly, with a trem-
cndous boom, the vessel blew up filling
the air with the mangled bodies of
the plunderers, two hundred of whom
We're killed.
How or by whom the Tonquin was
blown up, will never he known. The
most probable hypothesis is that the
four escaping sailors, on leaving the
ship, laid a slow train to the powder
magazine, knowing that the Indians
would board the vessel for plunder as
! soon as they should leave it, and thus